Babel Clash

Today marks the last days of Star Wars Sundays Double Feature.  We’ll have Edward Lazellari and David Chandler with us today talking about Star Wars.  Then, next week, we’re going to have Kim Harrison helping us turn the light off to Babel Clash with her Star Wars Sunday post.

Lazellari is known mainly for his career in the comic business, but this month, fans will see him in a new light.  His debut novel, Awakenings, will be available 8/31.  Here’s a quick description of the book (which I’m sure you’ll all enjoy).

Cal MacDonnell is a happily married New York cop with a loving family. Seth Raincrest is a photographer whose self-involved nature has alienated even his closest friends. They have nothing in common—except that they suffer from retrograde amnesia. It’s as if they just appeared out of thin air thirteen years ago, and nothing has been able to restore their memories. Now that forgotten past has caught up to them with a vengeance.

Cal and Seth’s lives are turned upside down as they are stalked by otherworldly beings who know their past identities, intent on killing them and anyone who gets in their way. In the balance hangs the life of a child who might someday restore a broken empire to peace and prosperity. With no clue why they’re being hunted, they must accept the aid of a strange, beautiful woman who’s promised to unlock their secrets. Cal and Seth must stay alive long enough to protect their loved ones, recover their true selves—and save two worlds from tyranny and destruction.

Edward was gracious enough to participate in Star Wars Sundays with us.  Please enjoy the post…and pick up his debut novel!

The Kid’s Are Not All Right… Buh Bye

Edward Lazellari

For those of us who grew up with the original Star Wars trilogy, the last three movies in the saga were a bitter disappointment. That’s not to say the first three movies didn’t have flaws, but the characters were lovable and their chemistry energetic, so we were willing to suspend our disbelief. Even the state-of-the-art special effects in those earlier films served the characters instead of overpowering them. That said, I was willing to forgive Jar Jar Binks’ existence and the attention-deficit-paced editing of the first two films as long as “Revenge of the Sith” delivered the emotional impact of Anakin Skywalker’s turn to the dark side. But, it didn’t.

It’s not as though Lucas’ didn’t have all the ingredients necessary to make a truly terrific movie. But when you make a soup, it’s not just about the elements as much as how the vegetables are cut, what temperature to stew it at, how long, and even the type of pot you use. The devil’s in the details. (Must remember to pitch Star Wars cook book idea.) Beyond Hayden Christian’s whiney brooding portrayal of Anakin (before Twilight cornered the market on it), beyond the flawed and sometimes racist portrayals of the new alien races, the frenetic pacing, and cartoon villains, the thing that jumped the shark for me was Amidala’s death. In a nutshell, I simply cannot buy Padme’s loss of the will to live right after giving birth to Luke and Leia.

Yes, yes, I know… she had to die for the end of “Revenge…” to match up with the start of “A New Hope.” But really, the former queen of Naboo had just delivered two healthy children. Anyone who’s had a mom knows the bond between mother and child is harder to break than Charlie Sheen’s addiction to whores. Sane women will sacrifice their own lives to save their children, but they won’t abandon them. And with two babies, that bond should have been stronger than the bond between Donald Trump’s head and his toupee. What was missing from episode three was Padme’s sacrifice to protect her children from the monster their fathered had become. It would not have been that hard to film.

Chris Cooper, a former Marvel Comics editor, creator of the online comic Queer Nation, and good friend concocted my favorite alternate ending to Revenge of The Sith, which went somewhat like this:

After giving birth, Padme realizes Anakin has fallen to the dark side and that their children must be protected from him. She tells him (now Darth Vader) that the children are dead. But she knows she can’t keep the truth from him because of his mastery of the Force. To protect the secret, she decides to take her own life (maybe throws herself off a cliff). But Vader, using the force, foils her death. She’s desperate because he will find out the truth, and in a desperate effort, she pretends she’s happy he saved her and convinces him she wants to be with him. She gets close to Vader, embracing him, and while the Sith lord is distracted by her affections, she activates the light saber on his belt while it’s pointed toward her, and kills herself.

Now his howl of NOOOOOO! would really hit home. He’s lost most of his body, his children, and finally his wife’s love and respect. She’d rather be dead than be with him. The rejection leaves him an emotional mess plunging him into the kind of dark hole that would give birth to the Darth Vader we were introduced to in Star Wars: a loveless, merciless, driven minion of a Sith emperor.

Instead, we got, “I’ve lost the will to live.” Epic fail if there ever was one.

“Writing comics? Still the best job in the world. I sit around all day making shit up and see it illustrated, in 99% of cases, exactly as I imagined it — if not better. I’ve been doing this a long time now, and I’m going to do it until I die. Which probably won’t be long, given the constant insane deadline pressure.” — Warren Ellis

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Congrats to Tamar bat Avraham, whose name I pulled from the hat! Contact me at marjoriemliu (at) gowebway (dot) com with your shipping information!

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I’m a novelist, first and foremost. I adore writing comics, though it’s my natural inclination to write prose. Still, I love trying new things and telling different kinds of stories, so I wasn’t put off by the challenge of trying my hand at the comic-style of storytelling — which is in script format. I’ve attached the first page of Dark Wolverine 84, so you can get a sense of what this looks like (though everyone has a different way of doing things).

I learned from example. When I first started at Marvel, editor John Barber gave me several sample scripts to study for format and style. I was already familiar with the characters I was supposed to be writing — Kiden, Bobby, from NYX — and once I sat down to write, the story flowed. That’s the thing about comics and novels — it’s all storytelling. You just have to shift your focus a bit. I did need a corrective hand when it came to pacing — visually, it’s better to end certain scenes at the end of the page, for example — and, visually, there were some things I’d written that were difficult for artist Kalman Andrasofszky to portray. But it all worked out in the end, thanks to my wonderful editors.

Yesterday, Kelley posed the question of whether or not working in comics had helped her writing. I can say, with certainty, that it has helped me. For one thing, you have to keep your stories tight. You only have twenty-two pages to play with. Sharp dialogue is incredibly important. You can’t be loose with your words, and every little bit of space counts. You also have to hone your sense of visual content. I’ve been lucky enough to work with brilliant artists, inkers, and colorists, really extraordinary people who bring tremendous life to everything they touch. When I shape an issue, I give some indication for how a panel should look — but it’s the artist who gives the story its soul.

I don’t have an artist to work with when I write my novels (oh, I would love for them to be illustrated), but working in comics has helped me develop a better instinct for what visuals are essential to a scene, what you need to progress the story without dumping in a lot of unnecessary extras. I haven’t gone completely barebones yet, but it’s something I’ve begun to think about more as I write.

Finally, I’ve learned a lot about plotting stories. I am not, and never will be, an outliner. I’ve said that so many times, in so many different ways, it’s practically part of my author identity. But, I happen to co-write Dark Wolverine with a fantastic outliner. Daniel Way can plot a story in one breath, and make it sound brilliant. I still don’t know how he does it, but I’ve learned so much from working with him; specifically, that plotting a story does not have to be some insurmountable burden. It’s an incredibly useful tool, and I’ve been attempting — in small doses — to plan out my books, tiny sections at a time. Not so far in advance that I lose the thrill of discovering the story, but just enough to help me think about the plot, instead of hurling myself headfirst and blind into it.

That mindset has been helping me as I work on my new novel (a paranormal chick-lit mystery), and it helped as I wrote A WILD LIGHT, which took several major detours, plot-wise — but each one was well-thought out!

When you read novels or comics — or newspapers, or anything at all — are you ever struck with a sense that you’re learning something? Is there one book or author in particular that you feel as though you learned something from, after reading his or her work?

“We’re on our way to rescue a queen, overthrow an evil wizard, and win back a country. Care to join us?” - Wolverine (from Marvel Comics, X-Men, etc)

It’s been mentioned more than once that I’m nuts to write so many different things, but as I like to joke, I’ve got a black belt in crazy — so that makes it all okay.

In addition to novels, I write comic books. I didn’t grow up reading comics. In fact, I remember being less than impressed when my friends would drag their latest haul to school and flip through them with a sort of wide-eyed wonderment that I just didn’t get. The pictures were pretty, but what else was there?

Fast forward a couple years. I started watching the X-Men cartoon on FOX, and that sealed the deal. I loved that show. It was gritty and kind of grown-up, and the characters had actual story-arcs that played out through each successive episode. It was really good stuff. But I still wasn’t reading comics. I was interested, but I didn’t have access to them.

Until I went to college. Powerhouse Comics was just down the street, and one day I wandered in. No one else was there. Just me and the man who ran the place, and who was happy to let me browse on my own. I picked up the X-Men that day, and Batman, Deadpool…a lot of books. And then I went back the next week, and the week after that. I began collecting issues. I spent real money. What was I thinking?

I was thinking that I loved this stuff! It was pure soap opera.  A gruff man with claws getting his heart broken; a woman who could never touch another living being (not even the sexy thief who loved her); space battles and cosmic powers; and kids saving the world. I wanted to write those characters! I wanted to play in that universe!

So, fast forward another couple years. I’d sold my first novel, and was seated with my agent. It was Halloween. Her adorable son ran up wearing a Spiderman costume, and I said, “Wow, that is so cute. And by the way, I read comics and love them.”

And my agent said, “Well, it just so happens that Marvel signed a licensing agreement with Pocket to publish novels based on certain characters…and I know the editor who is looking for writers.”

That caught my attention. I submitted a proposal and ended up writing X-Men: Dark Mirror. And that, friends, was my foot in the door. The folks at Marvel liked the work I did on the novel, and after three years of discussion, they invited me to write NYX: No Way Home. That led to my current run on Dark Wolverine, which led to Black Widow, and the upcoming X-23. I’ve been blessed with the chance to work with wonderful artists, editors, and writers in a completely different genre than the one I began in, and it’s been a fantastic experience.

Kelley Armstrong, who had a wonderful run on Angel, is joining us tomorrow — and I’d love to know how she got her start in comics.  Kelley?  How did that happen for you?

In the meantime, I’m giving away a copy of NYX: No Way Home, Dark Wolverine: The Prince, Masked (an anthology of superhero fiction), and X-Men: Dark Mirror to one lucky person who leaves their name in the comments. Chime in with some of your favorite superheroes and comic books!

Thank you once more to Naomi and Claudia.  It was a treat to welcome you both to Babel Clash.

I’m pleased to welcome our next guests, Dan Abnett & Graham McNeill.  Both are veteran writers of Warhammer novels and comics.  Dan also writes for Marvel Comics, and his work includes Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy and War of Kings.  He scores extra points for writing stories with Adam Warlock, who is one of my all-time favorite comic characters.

Our next topic is, “Playing in somebody else’s universe and making it your own.”